President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa called the visit of his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Pretoria “historic” as it was the first time the Ukrainian head of state had come to South Africa since the establishment of official diplomatic relations between the countries.
“This official working visit reflects our common desire to strengthen bilateral relations between our countries for the benefit of our peoples. This is in many ways a historic visit, because it is the first visit of a Ukrainian head of state to South Africa in 33 years since the establishment of official diplomatic relations between South Africa and Ukraine,” he said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Pretoria on Thursday.
According to Ramaphosa, he held “successful talks” with President Zelensky, during which the leaders exchanged views on how to strengthen and deepen bilateral relations between the two countries. They also discussed how ministers from both sides can work together to deepen and broaden these relations.
They also noted the growing interest in expanding relations in the areas of diplomacy, post-conflict reconstruction, development and empowerment of peoples, especially women.
“We also discussed opportunities for cooperation in areas such as agriculture, trade, education, infrastructure and energy, as well as other social issues,” the president added.
In addition, Ramaphosa noted the significant steps taken by Ukraine, and President Zelensky in particular, to expand relations with the African continent. These include the provision of grain in the food sector, the expansion of agricultural cooperation, and the opening of a grain hub to the port of Mombasa in Kenya.
According to him, today’s meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the common interest in promoting peace, security, stability and sustainable development on the continent, in Ukraine and around the world.
The management of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan discussed with representatives of Tencent Cloud International, a part of the Chinese holding Tencent Holdings Ltd, the issues of bilateral cooperation in the development of digital technologies and cloud infrastructure in the country, the press service of the regulator reports.
During the talks, the prospects of integrating Tencent’s WeChat Pay digital payment system with local payment systems of Uzbekistan, the possibility of making payments using QR codes, as well as expanding cooperation in this area were discussed, the statement said.
Following the meeting, the parties supported initiatives in the field of payment systems and agreed on future joint actions.
Miraziz Mirkhayotov, deputy director of the Central Bank’s payment systems department, told reporters that Chinese mobile payment services WeChat and Alipay (from Ant Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group) can be integrated with Uzbekistan’s national payment systems.
According to him, at the first stage, the parties are working to ensure that foreign tourists can make payments in Uzbekistan. At the second stage, similar work is planned to make payments by Uzbek residents in China through the republic’s payment systems Uzcard and Humo.
Naftogaz Group and Polish oil concern ORLEN have signed a new agreement for the supply of 100 million cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Ukraine.
“This is the third contract within the partnership signed in the spring of this year. The total volume of contracted gas is 300 million cubic meters,” the company said on Thursday.
The signing of the contract was announced at the annual ORLEN GAS Meeting, a leading industry event dedicated to the region’s energy security.
The gas will be supplied from the US, regasified at the terminal in Świnoujście (Poland) and transported to Ukraine via the Polish gas transportation system.
“We are already preparing for the next heating season, and such contracts are an important part of our strategy to diversify supplies and ensure the country’s energy stability,” said Roman Chumak, CEO of Naftogaz Group.
In turn, according to Robert Soschinsky, Vice President of Operations at ORLEN, the new agreement with Naftogaz emphasizes the growing role of ORLEN as a natural gas supplier in the region.
“Our partnership significantly strengthens Ukraine’s energy security thanks to ORLEN’s diversified supply portfolio and efficient use of the Polish gas transportation infrastructure,” he emphasized.
As reported, in March 2025, Naftogaz and ORLEN signed a memorandum of long-term cooperation in the field of liquefied natural gas (LNG), under which they signed a contract for the supply of the first 100 million cubic meters. The memorandum establishes long-term strategic cooperation between the companies and will enable Ukraine to create a more diversified gas supply system.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on April 23 announced a tender for compulsory insurance of civil liability of car owners and insurance of drivers against accidents in transport, according to the state procurement system Prozorro.
The expected cost of purchasing the services is UAH 1.044 mln. The deadline for submission of documents is April 30, 2025. The winner of a similar tender a year ago was IC “Guardian”.
In January-March 2025, Astarta Agro-Industrial Holding, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, reduced its revenue from sales of key products by 19.1% compared to the same period in 2024: the growth in sales of sugar, sunflower, soybean oil and milk could not cover the decline in sales of wheat, corn, rapeseed and soybean meal.
According to the data released by the holding on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the company sold a total of UAH 5.20 billion worth of its main products in the first quarter of 2025, compared to UAH 6.43 billion in the first quarter of 2024.
In particular, sales of sugar increased by 11% in physical terms in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024 – to 76.896 thousand tons, while the average selling price decreased by 8% to UAH 22.808 thousand (hereinafter referred to as per ton).
Astarta’s wheat sales in the first quarter decreased by 92% to 6.638 thsd tonnes, while the average price increased by 4% to UAH 8.824 thsd.
In the fourth quarter, corn sales decreased by 48% to 111.423 thsd tonnes, while the price increased by 21% to UAH 9.747 thsd.
In addition, Astarta decreased sales of sunflower seeds in January-March by 18% to 15.965 thsd tonnes, while their selling price increased by 119% to UAH 28.697 thsd.
In January-March 2025, the agricultural holding did not sell rapeseed, while a year earlier in the same period it sold 18.855 thsd tonnes at the price of 17.628 thsd tonnes.
Sales of soybean oil in the first quarter decreased by 12% to 11.97 thsd tonnes, while the price of the product also increased by 45% to UAH 43.48 thsd. Sales of soybean meal increased by 2% to 43.67 thsd tonnes, and its price was 13% lower than last year’s UAH 16.08 thsd.
In January-March 2025, the agricultural holding’s milk sales increased by 1% to 30.899 thsd tonnes, while the price of the products increased by 20% to UAH 20.02 thsd.
Overall, in 2024, Astarta increased sales of its main products by 7.8%: growth in sales of sugar, wheat, rapeseed, soybean oil and milk offset a drop in sales of corn and sunflower. In particular, sugar sales increased by 40% to 395.88 thousand tons, while the average selling price decreased by 9% to UAH 23.85 thousand. The total revenue of the agricultural holding from the sale of its main products amounted to UAH 24.88 billion last year, compared to UAH 23.08 billion in 2023.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It comprises six sugar factories, agricultural enterprises with a land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, an oil extraction plant in Globyno (Poltava region), seven elevators and a biogas complex.
In January-March 2025, imports of copper and copper products to Ukraine increased by 10.5% compared to the same period in 2024 to $46.42 million.
Exports of copper products increased by 17.7% to $21.35 million.
In March, imports amounted to $16.14 million, while exports amounted to $7.05 million.
For the whole of 2024, copper imports remained stable ($140.8 million), while exports increased by 22.4% to $88.24 million.
Copper is widely used in electrical engineering, pipe manufacturing, alloys, medicine and other industries.
